Orologio meccanico e astronomico - Messina, Italy
N 38° 11.537 E 015° 33.273
33S E 548560 N 4227294
The bell tower of the Cathedral of Messina contains the biggest and most complex mechanical and astronomical clock in the world. Designed by the firm Ungerer of Strasbourg it was inaugurated in 1933 and is the city’s main attraction even today.
Waymark Code: WMVE6K
Location: Sicilia, Italy
Date Posted: 04/07/2017
Views: 1
There is a face of the clock with a diameter of 2,40 m. on each of the four sides of the tower. The heart of the clock regulates their workings.
The planetarium dial shows the solar system. The sun is at the center and nine planets rotate around it located at a distance which is proportional to the actual one. The time of revolution is not the same for all planets but it is perfectly in sync with an approximation of up to 1/100th of a second.
The days, months, years and liturgical holidays are marked on the perpetual calendar dial, a large disk of about 3.5 m in diameter.
A marble statue representing an angel points out the day with an arrow. At midnight the date changes automatically.
At noon a complex system of counterweights, leverages and gears, determines the movement of the gilded bronze statues located in the façade. They are related to the civil and religious traditions of the city.
The Clock Tower can be visited inside. Along the staircase, you can admire the bronze statues and the complex and ingenious system of leverages and gears that generate the movement of the clock.
The mechanism moves every day at 12.00am and lasts 12 minutes. On every quarter hour the two heroines on the sides of the rooster, Dina and Clarenza, strike the quarters and the hours.
Théodore Ungerer, wanted to give his complex mechanism a profound symbolic significance.: the scenes on the clock in their perfect harmony movement and synchrony are a symbol of man’s soul constantly seeking God.
Status: Working
Display: Mounted
Year built: 01/01/1933
Web link to additional info: Not listed
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Photo of clock.
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